A Legacy Lost
by Kain Aldar
Summary: Alanwen is left alone in the world after his parents death. But after receiving a vision one night, he is confronted with something his parents hid from him, he is confronted with a legacy lost.


Chapter 1

The Vision

I could see them, my parents, they were running towards me with their arms outstretched. In their hands they held bags, bags full of money. I opened my arms, waiting to embrace my family, they had been gone for so long and I had missed them so. I reached out and could swear I could almost touch mothers' hand, but then she stopped abruptly and looked at me with sadness reflected in her eyes, the sadness that had plagued her for most of her life. She slowly fell to the floor, her life breath escaping her as she solidly hit the ground.

"Mother!" I screamed, hoping that she would get up, that she would stand up from the cobblestone courtyard of the Imperial City Prison District and embrace me and kiss my cheek like she used to. But that was so long ago, and I knew that the arrow that gruesomely potruded from her back had pierced her heart, it had pierced the heart that had once loved me.

"Alanwen!" I could dimly hear my fathers' voice calling my name. I slowly turned towards him. He was kneeling on the ground and a guard was standing beside him with a steel longsword held loosely at his throat.

"Hey Robert, should I finish him off?" asked the guard with the longsword.

Robert was standing at the far end of the couryard and was slowly nocking another arrow, that was the man that had killed my mother, that was the man that would eventually feel the steel of my blade enter his throat. He will pay for what he has done to mother, to Verna.

"Go right 'head, not like anybody's goin t' miss him," came the calm reply of Robert.

"No, don't kill him, he's my father, he can't die!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, trying to get the guards to listen to me. But they ignored me, or maybe they really couldn't hear me. Even if they could they still probably would not have listened to me.

"Any last words?" asked the guard.

My father looked up at me, his tear stained face making him look more miserable than he ever had before. He stared straight at me, it felt like his blue eyes pierced right through me, it felt as though he could see me, as if he could see my soul.

"I'm sorry son," he mumbled, barely audible. He continued to say something else but it was drowned out by the rumbling thunder overhead. As he finished speaking the guard raised his sword high above his head and poised for the killing blow he was about to deal.

"Nooooooo!" I screamed, hoping that some miracle would save my father from his death, that the gods themselves would come from the heavens and deliver him from this, but alas, the gods had put a deaf ear to his prayers once again.

Everything seemed to happen at once. The guard began swinging the sword down in a deadly arc towards fathers throat. I ran towards father, screaming for the guard to stop. Thunder and lightning fought each other in the sky above.

And then everything went dark.

I jerked awake to the loud booming of thunder outside. The salty taste in my mouth confirmed that the liquid that covered my entire body was sweat, apparently from all the tossing and turning I had done in my sleep during the nightmare I had. If you can call it that, it could have been a vision, I would never be able to tell because I was not there when my parents were killed. They were killed one night when I was off in Fatback Cave with some of the older archers in the water-front.

I looked around my small shack that I had taken the liberty of making my own. It was the shack for sale at the edge of the water in the Waterfront District, I had assumed that nobody would want it given the state it was in so I thought to myself that I might as well not let a shelter like that go to waste. It might not be much, but it is much more than I am used to and it is much better then sleeping outside on a pallet, especially in something like this.

I slowly got up out of the worn single bed in the corner of the room and dizzily walked to the round table at the other end of the room near the door and sat down. I could see lightning flashing through the crack in the door and hear the loud rumble of thunder in the heavens above. I scratched my ears, having to hold down the long points of my ears to get to the itchy spot. My golden blonde hair was still tied securely in its short rogue knot that I have had for more than three years now. I am only in my 25th winter, and my 2nd without my parents.

My parents had been trying to obtain money from the Imperials to "simplify" our lives, but they had only ended up in making my life miserable. They had been caught trying to steal money from the Imperial Offices and were killed on the spot,  
most likely in cold blood. But after their death, I have been constantly watched by the scornful Imperial officers all over the Imperial City and I have been labeled a hero in the waterfront for the foolish robbery that my parents attempted. Being a hero had its ups, but it definately had its downs. One of them was the constant attention that was being drawn towards you,  
not only was it highly annoying, but it was also dangerous, especially for someone in my kind of proffession, or "chosen lifestyle."

I followed the footsteps of my parents and became a criminal, now I am one of the best thiefs in the waterfront district next to a couple of the best, and of course the Gray Fox himself. I have not yet attempted to join the Thieves Guild. But it does seem like a promising line of work, and the rewards seem to be exquisitely magnificent.

I grabbed an apple from the bowl that sat on the round wooden table before me. But I can always save that work for later, plus I am making enough money taking from the Imperial Offices. I laughed again as I thought of my current line of work and the irony behind it. I finished my apple and lay back down on my bed and began to ponder my dream I just had. The more I thought about it, the more it hurt. That was the same dream that I have had for the past couple months now, maybe my parents are trying to communicate with me from the spirit world. I laughed at the thought, I never have believed in those silly superstitions. But still, maybe I should ask Gabriel about it. AS I thought about it I slowly drifted off into a fitful sleep.


End file.
